Spirituality Bookshelf

The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry - a balanced, deeply felt declaration of planetary independence from the sociological, psychological and intellectual conditioning that threatens the death of soul and nature.

Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living- personal revelations and intimate reflections on the art of living.

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell -written by Campbell in the '40s– in his pre-Bill Moyers days – and famous as George Lucas’ inspiration for Star Wars, this book will likewise inspire any writer or reader in its well considered assertion that while all stories have already been told, this is *not* a bad thing, since the *retelling* is still necessary.

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (Contributor)- Based on a six-part PBS television series.

The Power of Myth - Vols. 1-6 (1988) - The Hero’s Adventure, The Message of the Myth, The First Storytellers, Sacrifice and Bliss, Love and the Goddess, Masks of Eternity. 360 minutes.

Hero’s Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell - A biographical portrait of Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey follows Campbell’s own quest, a pathless journey of questioning, discovery, and ultimately of delight and joy in a life to which he said, yes. Joseph Campbell spent most of his long rich career understanding how myths speak to us in our own life and myths by which we are all living today. In understanding the importance of myth as a vital living source that shapes our lives, Campbell inspired many to find that source within themselves. Whether it was Finnegans Wake or the Navajo material or the Hindu material of Heinrich Zimmer, it was all the same material and that was when I realized that there’s one mythology in the world.

Mythos - Boxed Set (1987) - a series of lectures delivered by Joseph Campbell, probably in the early 80s, to groups of students.

The Masks of God: Creative Mythology by Joseph Campbell- explores the whole inner story of modern culture since the Dark Ages, treating modern man’s unique position as the creator of his own mythology.

The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology by Joseph Campbell- systematic and fascinating comparison of the themes that underlie the art, worship, and literature of the Western world. The high function of Occidental myth and ritual . . . is to establish a means of relationship–of God to Man and Man to God.

The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology by Joseph Campbell- an explanation of Eastern mythology as it developed into the distinctive religions of Egypt, India, China, and Japan. The myth of eternal return, which is still basic to Oriental life, displays an order of fixed forms that appear and disappear through all time.

The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology by Joseph Campbell- Discussion of the primitive roots of mythology, examining them in light of the most recent discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology.

Transformations of Myth Through Time by Joseph Campbell- collection of thirteen lectures, prepared for the television series of the same title, examines mythological development around the world and across the ages. Illustrated with many of the images (in b&w) that, on slides, accompanied the original lectures.

Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by Dalai Lama- the exiled leader of Tibet recounts his life, from the time he was whisked away from his home in 1939 at the age of 4, to his treacherous escape from Tibet in 1959, to his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy by Edward F. Edinger - progressive explication of the alchemical stages of development as a way to understand the human psyche.

Ego & Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche by Edward F. Edinger - A study of the journey to psychological wholeness–a process that Jung described as a conscious encounter between the ego and the archetypal symbols of the collective unconscious.

The Eliade Guide to World Religions by Mircea Elaide, Ioan P. Couliano - up-to-date digest of Eliade’s monumental three-volume History of Religious Ideas, distilling Eliade’s lifework into one accessible A-Z volume. Includes both an index and brief identifications of key religions, sacred books, and spiritual themes.

The Mission of Art by Alex Grey, Ken Wilber - traces the evolution of human consciousness through art history and calling for a renewed spiritual content in modern art.

A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story by Jean Houston- Mythic patterns repeated time and again in modern lives, crossing cultural and historical barriers to reassert themselves.

The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade- exploring what is profane and what is sacred particularly through the evolution of myth and early religion.

The Breathing Cathedral: Feeling Our Way into a Living Cosmos by Martha Heyneman, Thomas Berry - Living with meaning: the need for a whole-being sense of the cosmos. A panoramic vision of cosmic spiritual ecology achieved through an unusual balance between practical observation, vigorous knowledge of literature and science, and inspired personal insight. Author relates her practice and understanding of the Gurdjieff teaching to international legacies of literature and science, and to the immediate sensory details of her own life.

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James- an intellectual call for serious religious tolerance.

The Undiscovered Self by Carl Gustav Jung - A short, easy to read book for the general reader that intergrates many of Jung’s lifelong social and psychological concerns and addresses the uneasy relation between the individual and mass society. The survival of civilization, Jung maintains, depends on individual awareness of both the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human psyche.

Man and His Symbols by Carl Gustav Jung - only work in which the world-famous Swiss psychologist explains to the layperson his enormously influential theory of symbolism as revealed in dreams. [more Jung resources]

The Collected Works of C.S. Lewis: The Pilgrim’s Regress, Christian Reflections, God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis - related faith to every area of life with good humor and compelling directness.

Christ and Culture by H. Richard Niebuhr - without a doubt the one outstanding book in the field of basic Christian social ethics.

Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto, John W. Harvey (Translator) - describes philosophically what it means for God to be “wholly other”, or transcendent.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig - a present-tense cross-country motorcycle trip in which the maintenance of the motorcycle becomes an illustration of how we can unify the cold, rational realm of technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry.

The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, and the Sacred Geography of the Body by J. Nigro Sansonese - investigation into the origin and meaning of myth.

The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era-A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos by Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry - From the big bang to the present and into the next millenium, The Universe Story unites science and the humanities in a dramatic exploration of the unfolding of the universe, humanity’s evolving place in the cosmos, and the boundless possibilities for our future.

The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos by Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry - From the most recent scientific discoveries about the birth of the universe, this book shows how these new insights replace outmoded ways of seeing the world, bridging the chasm between science and spirituality, the physical realm and the soul in this evolving universe.

Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul: A Study of Heroic Individualism by Leslie Paul Thiele - an original and accessible essay on the great thinker's attempt to lead a heroic life as a philosopher, artist, saint, educator, and solitary, a political biography of the soul.

Coming into Being: Artifacts and Texts in the Evolution of Consciousness by William Irwin Thompson - examining the ways in which scientific explanations of everything from the form of matter to the origins of humankind are functionally mythic and the ways in which myth predicts and expresses scientific knowledge. Like his hero, Marshall McLuhan, Thompson employs a dense, aphoristic style to make his sharpest points. Smart weapons mean that war can’t be played in real time, he quips, and so the mythic warrior archetype is now deflected onto gangs and soccer matches. Patriarchy is not going to go out blowing kisses to the feminists, he says, continuing to observe that its demise may result instead in some sort of sexual Bosnia.

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts - Modern Western culture and technology is inextricably tied to the belief in the existence of a self as a separate ego, separated from and in conflict with the rest of the world.

The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Wilson Watts - An exploration of man’s quest for psychological security and spiritual certainty in religion and philosophy.

A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber, Tony Schwartz - account of men and women’s place in a universe of sex and gender, self and society, spirit and soul is written in question-and-answer format.

Spirituality Bookshelf

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